PANAJI
The recruitment process initiated by the Goa police department some months ahead of the recent general assembly elections has hit a roadblock -- the amendment to the rules under the Goa Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Act, which permitted direct recruitment by departments instead of the Commission lapsed in February.
This technical hitch has forced the Goa police to freeze midway the process of filling nearly 2005 positions including 145 police sub-inspectors, 1,650 constables (700-odd for IRB Battalions) and other posts.
The Goa Police has now written to the State government seeking advice and directions on how to proceed further as legal opinion suggests the hiring process will have to be taken over by the SSC.
The previous Pramod Sawant government had tweaked the rules under the Staff Selection Commission law to give powers to individual departments to recruit against sanctioned C category posts directly. However, these powers to the individual department were for just one year which lapsed in February this year.
Recruitment to fill nearly 10,000 government positions in the run-up to the February assembly elections had generated much political heat with allegations of political interference and also corruption in the processes, flying thick and fast.
Not just the Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but legislators of the ruling BJP led by current Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, too had raised serious questions over the fairness and lack of transparency in the recruitment drive.
The processes to recruit junior engineers in the Public Works Department (PWD) and multiple category staff in the Directorate of Health Services and Goa Medical College and Hospital, in particular had come under the scrutiny of the Opposition parties and the group of legislators led by Monserrate.
Monserrate had even alleged that the then PWD Minister, Deepak Pauskar, had auctioned the junior engineer posts to the highest bidder.
The corruption allegations in the PWD recruitment had also forced the then Sawant government to keep it on hold.
In the case of the DHS and the GMCH, the process was questioned as over 80 per-cent of the candidates who were selected hailed from the twin Sattari constituencies of Poriem and Valpoi.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, who was also health minister in the previous government, represents Valpoi while Poriem is now represented by his wife Deviya Rane who succeeded her father-in-law Pratapsing Rane.
Meanwhile, the recruitment processes in the PWD, DHS and GMCH have been challenged in the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court which is currently hearing three separate petitions related to these three departments.
